Do you choose God or does He choose you?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Ephesians 1:4

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Did you know that God chose you before He laid the foundations of the earth? You talk about “old time religion”! Well, friend, you can’t get much older than that! Before there were any trees, mountains, birds, and bees, God chose you to be one of His children.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, “God certainly must have chosen me before I came into this world because He never would have chosen me afterward.” 

That means you and I cannot take the credit for our salvation or bear the weight of maintaining it. First John 4:19 says, “We love Him, because He first loved us.” Somebody asked a little boy, “Have you found the Lord?” And the little boy said, “I didn’t know He was lost.” How miraculous that God has chosen us. When left alone to ourselves, we would never have chosen Him. 

ACTION POINT:

Although His love for us is a divine mystery, it can bring great assurance to your heart to know “He first loved us.” Allow God’s Word to teach you what it means to be chosen. Read Matthew 20:16, 24:22; Luke 10:20; John 6:37-39; Romans 8:28-39; 1 Corinthians 1:26-31; Ephesians 1:9-11; 2 Timothy 1:9.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

How to Respond When You Falter

For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. (Romans 7:19)

Christians do not live only in defeat. But neither do we live only in perfect victory over sin. And in those times when we fail to triumph over sin, Romans 7:13–25 shows us the normal way a healthy Christian should respond.

We should say:

I love the law of God. (verse 22)

I hate what I just did. (verse 15)

Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? (verse 24)

Thanks be to God! The victory will come through Jesus Christ my Lord. (verse 25)

In other words, no Christian wants to live in defeat. No Christian settles for living in defeat. But if we are defeated for a time, we shouldn’t lie about it.

No hypocrisy. No posing. No boasted perfectionism. No churchy, pasted smiles or chipper superficiality.

And even more, God save us from blindness to our own failures and the consequent quickness to judge others.

God, help us to feel worse about our own shortfalls than the failure of others.

God, give us the honesty and candor and humility of the apostle Paul in this text! “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24–25).

John Piper 

The truth of all truths

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. Romans 6:9-10

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

The best news this old world has ever heard came from a graveside just outside Jerusalem: He is risen! On that day, life and death met in a tomb in mortal combat. Life won. Death died. In that tomb, Jesus won the victory over death.

There is no more timeless truth than this: Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. That’s a truth science cannot explain, history cannot repeat, and time cannot erode away. It is the Truth of all truths. It’s the Truth that proves Jesus is the Son of God. Romans 1:3-4 declares it to be so:

Concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.”

What’s the proof Jesus is God’s Son? Romans says, “Here’s your proof: God raised Him from the dead.”

ACTION POINT:

Someone has said, “If Jesus Christ is still in that grave, nothing matters. But if He came out of the grave, nothing but that really matters.” Be aware as you go about your day today that in Jesus Christ, you serve not a dead prophet or philosopher—but a risen Lord. Jesus is alive; King of kings and Lord of lords.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Better Than Everest

We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

If you live inside this massive promise, your life is more solid and stable than Mount Everest.

Nothing can blow you over when you are inside the walls of Romans 8:28. Outside Romans 8:28, all is confusion and anxiety and fear and uncertainty. Outside this promise of God’s all-encompassing future grace, there are straw houses of drugs and pornography and dozens of futile diversions. There are slat walls and tin roofs of fragile investment strategies and fleeting insurance coverage and trivial retirement plans. There are cardboard fortifications of deadbolt locks and alarm systems and anti ballistic missiles. Outside are a thousand substitutes for Romans 8:28.

Once you walk through the door of love into the massive, unshakable structure of Romans 8:28, everything changes. There come into your life stability and depth and freedom. You simply can’t be blown over anymore. The confidence that a sovereign God governs for your good all the pain and all the pleasure that you will ever experience is an incomparable refuge and security and hope and power in your life.

When God’s people really live by the future grace of Romans 8:28 — from measles to the mortuary — they are the freest and strongest and most generous people in the world.

Their light shines and people give glory to their Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16).

John Piper 

Can you be sure your sins are forgiven?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

[Jesus] was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification. Romans 4:25

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

A skeptic was talking with a little girl one day. She loved the Lord Jesus with all of her heart. He was trying to shake her faith and said, “Young lady, Christianity is not the only religion, you know. There are plenty of religions in the world. There are plenty of Christs. Which Christ do you believe in?” She thought for a minute and said, “I believe in the One who was raised from the dead.” Amen! That’s the One I believe in, too!

The death of Christ on the cross without His resurrection cannot save you. If Christ died on the cross and that is all that happened, then Jesus was just one more religious leader.

How can we know for sure that God accepted His payment for sin? Proof positive: He raised Jesus from the dead. If Jesus is still in the grave, your hope of heaven is not worth half a hallelujah.

ACTION POINT:

This week, take comfort in the fact that His resurrection brings the offer of replenishment and restoration to all mankind.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Two of Our Deepest Needs

To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thessalonians 1:1)

We as a church are “in” a Father and “in” a Lord. What does that mean?

The word “Father” implies primarily care and sustaining and protection and provision and discipline. So, to be “in” the Father would mean mainly to be in the care and under the protection of God as our heavenly Father.

The other designation is Lord: We are in the Lord Jesus Christ. The word “Lord” implies primarily authority and leadership and ownership. So, to be “in” the Lord means mainly to be in the charge, under the authority, and in the possession of Jesus as our supreme Lord.

So, Paul greets the Thessalonian church in such a way as to remind them that they are a family (in the care of a Father) and that they are servants (in the charge of a Lord). These two descriptions of God as Father and Lord, and thus of the church as family and servants, correspond to two of our deepest needs.

Every single one of us has a need for rescue and help, on the one hand, and the need for purpose and meaning, on the other.

We need a heavenly Father to pity us and rescue us from sin and misery. We need his help every step of the way, because we are so weak and vulnerable.

We also need a heavenly Lord to guide us in life and tell us what is wise and give us a great and meaningful charge to fulfill, and reason for existence, some usefulness for the way God made us. We don’t just want to be safe in the care of a Father — as precious and needed as that is. We want a glorious cause to live for.

We want a merciful Father to be our Protector, and we want an omnipotent Lord to be our Champion and our Commander and our Leader in some great cause. So, when Paul says in verse 1, You are the church “in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,” we can take rest and help from the one — God is our Father! And we can take courage and meaning from the other — Jesus is our Lord!

John Piper 

Our past is dead and buried

BIBLE MEDITATION:

…Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures. 1 Corinthians 15:3b-4

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

One of the grandest blessings in the entire Bible is often missed by believers. It is the burial of Jesus Christ. That’s right—the burial of Jesus is a blessing to you, because not only have we died with Him, we have been buried with Him.

When Jewish people died in Bible times, they were immediately embalmed with special oils and spices, and wrapped in linen. The body was hidden and buried in a tomb. That is what Jesus has done with our old body of sin.

Paul wrote to the Galatians, “I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.”

Not only have we been crucified with Christ, we have been buried with Christ. Why the emphasis? So that you will not be haunted by the ghost of guilt. Your old life, your past, is not just dead, it’s buried!

ACTION POINT:

The devil will try to remind you what you were. Don’t let him. Don’t go prowling around in the dead bones of your old life. It is gone by the grace of God!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers